Bucket Of Shit

The quote above is clearly a sobering take on our world of always-on, social media-obsessed ‘participation’ marketing. I love doing things that involve the audience as much as any creative out there. Kids telling their mates in the playground about some cool new thing one of my client’s brands is up to is far more credible, powerful and cost-effective than spending shedloads carpet bombing paid-for media. The rapid spread of a great idea across social media networks is an amazing thing to behold (did you see the brilliant #SurrenderYourSay campaign?) But before we build our dizzyingly complex integrated campaigns, create our clever hashtags and start ‘populating’ our ‘content calendars’, we should put ourselves in the shoes of the consumer and ask ‘why would I give a shit?’ The reason Charlie Brooker is a genius is that however hysterically abusive he gets, his rants always start from a kernel of truth. So we should take his words as a valuable reality check. And remember, our job, in the context of his analogy, is to make sure it’s not shit in the bucket but something worthwhile, valuable and life-enriching.